'Powerships' May Replace South Korea's Offline Nuclear Reactors

Floating power plants offer a unique solution to South Korea's possible power shortages after the country shut down nuclear reactors containing uncertified parts.

The four "powerships" from Turkey can each produce about 150 megawatts of power for South Korea if the Korean government goes ahead with plans to rent them. That would make up for the expected power shortage this coming winter — a shortage resulting from the shutdown of two reactors at the Yeonggwang nuclear power plant which were discovered to have parts with forged certificates, according to The Chosun Ilbo.

That would not represent the first job for the powerships, which can turn either heavy fuel oil or natural gas into electricity. Turkey's Karadeniz Energy Group has built and deployed five of the ships since 2010 as part of its "Power of Friendship" project to help power-deprived regions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

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Karadeniz plans to complete building five more powerships by the end of 2013 to boost its fleet power capacity over 2,000 megawatts — approximately enough to power 2 million U.S. homes.